Reader Response Draft 1

In the article “Floor lights help 'smartphone-zombies' keep eye on the road”, Tan (2017) reports that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has installed LED strips in pavements to help pedestrians be more aware of their surroundings when crossing the road. The initiative could be useful in combating the rise in pedestrians who are always looking at their mobile devices. Tan highlighted statistics provided by the Traffic Police showing that there was a 5.4% increase in traffic accidents involving pedestrians as compared to 2015. These LED strips are placed on trial at areas with high pedestrian activity to determine its effectiveness in raising awareness for road safety. It will also light up like the traditional traffic lights, providing a sense of familiarity to the pedestrians. While the article did mention about a rise in traffic accidents involving pedestrians, the author did not provide concrete evidence linking smartphone usage directly to the increase in accidents. More research is needed to ascertain whether “smartphone zombies” are the primary cause of such accidents.

Data abstracted from the publication “Traffic safety facts” (U.S Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2013), shows that age, time of the day and the consumption of alcohol are some of the main contributing factors to traffic accidents involving pedestrians. Out of all traffic accidents involving pedestrians, 29% of pedestrian injuries are attributed to the age groups ‘fifteen and under’ and ‘sixty-five and over’. The publication goes on to show that 70% of pedestrian fatalities occur at night, between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.. Lastly, amongst all accidents that involve pedestrian fatalities, 16.8% of the pedestrians had a blood alcohol level high enough to be considered legally impaired. Hence, blaming “smartphone-zombies” as the primary reason for the rise in traffic accidents involving pedestrians may be unsubstantiated.

On the other hand, in the report “Global status report on road safety” (World Health Organization, 2015), Singapore attributes 26.9% of traffic related deaths to pedestrians. This is the highest percentage in ASEAN. Nearby, a study in Malaysia tries to link mobile phone usage to pedestrian traffic casualties. Titled “Prevalence of distracted pedestrians while crossing: a study of Malaysia’s situation” S. Mohd Syazwan, Md. Deros Baba, H. Nur Zarifah, A. Aqbal Hafeez and P. Noor Faradila (2016), the researchers conducted an observational experiment by analysing the behaviours of pedestrians while they cross the road. The researchers carried out their observations for a month and recorded 1,455 pedestrians. The objective of their analysis was to determine the primary cause of distractions amongst pedestrians. Their findings show that “mobile-phone usage” was overwhelmingly responsible for the distraction with 84.8% of distracted pedestrians attributed to it. The study also shows that young adults were the most distracted while crossing the roads, 50.9% of all distracted pedestrians were between twenty-one to thirty years of age. Only 7.7% of distracted pedestrians were above forty-one years old. This supports the stance that “smartphone-zombies” are responsible for the increase in pedestrian accidents.

While smartphone usage is definitely a cause for traffic accidents involving pedestrians, more justification is needed to warrant further installations of the embedded floor lights in Singapore. Perhaps a detailed study of the effectiveness of the trial conducted by LTA will shed more light on whether the prevalence of “smartphone-zombies” is responsible for the rise in traffic accidents involving pedestrians.

(551 words)

 Edited on 01/10/17

References


Tan. (2015).
Floor lights help 'smartphone zombies' keep eye on the road.
Retrieved from
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/floor-lights-help-smartphone-zombies-keep-eye-on-the-road


U.S, Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2013).
Traffic safety facts.
Retrieved from
https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811748


World Health Organization. (2015).
Global status report on road safety.
Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2015/TableA2.pdf?ua=1


S. Mohd Syazwan, Md. Deros Baba, H. Nur Zarifah, A. Aqbal Hafeez and P. Noor Faradila (2016).
Prevalence of distracted pedestrians while crossing: a study of Malaysia’s situation.
Retrieved from
https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/2017/04/matecconf_aigev2017_01031.pdf


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